Featured Artist

Bridget Farmer

Bridget Farmer discovered printmaking while taking a weekend course in etching at the Austrailian Print Workshop in Melbourne, in early 2006.  She is a native of Northern Ireland and had previously attained a degrees with First Class Honours in Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art.  Later, Bridget pursued an MFA in printmaking at RMIT, Melbourne and she has since been awarded a High Commendation in the Port Jackson Press Graduate Printmaking Award and received a 2008 Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Emerging Printmaker Scholarship.  Birds are a recurring theme in her work.  She describes herself as an observer of the world and her drawings and prints are a way of documenting these observations.

Pied Currawong, Sugar Lift Etching, 12.5 x 33 cm, Bridget Farmer, 2008

Why do you think you found yourself more drawn to etching than your initial artistic pursuits in jewelry making?
    I started out in Jewelery and Silversmithing because I loved working in metal and it seemed the right direction to go in, but I ended up not enjoying the precision of jewelery. I'm a messy worker, loose lines and I like results quickly, otherwise I feel I over work things and they loose the spontaneity.
    A very important part of the degree was our portfolio work. A body of work made up of drawings and experimental mark making. I loved doing the portfolio part of the course but just didn't know how to make it my main work. Printmaking was always suggested to me, but for some reason I was blinkered and only thought of screen printing which I didn't really enjoy.
When I discovered etching I found a medium that encompassed my love of drawing and my love of working with metal. It was perfect for me!

Australian Crows, Etching, 10 x 15.5 cm, Bridget Farmer, 2009

Have you developed favorites among the birds you observe to draw and print?

     I jump around quite a bit with my favorites. It's almost like I have a bird of the month or something! I always love crows and Australian magpies. At the moment it's finches. I've just finished a series of dry point finches, I'd like to do a whole finch flock! When I was living in Australia I made all Australian birds. At the moment I'm living in Northern Ireland for a couple of years and I'm concentrating on birds from here. When I move back to Australia in September I'll probably start on Australian birds again. I am quite influenced by my surroundings.

Robin, Etching, 16.5 x 10.5 cm, Bridget Farmer, 2010

Please share a bit about your Camda Etsy shop project.     
       In 2001 I went to Mongolia and oh my goodness, what a place! I fell in love with it and have been interested in the country and it's people ever since. Last winter I saw a very sad film clip about a recent zdud (extremely harsh winter conditions that happen every so often) that was killing vast numbers of the nomadic herders' livestock and leaving the people without a livelihood, forcing them to abandon their way of life. I discovered a charity based in Cambridge, England, called CAMDA (Cambridge Mongolia Development Appeal).  They raise money to help buy fodder for the livestock and send out vets and vital supplies. I donated money at the time but felt I wanted to do more. So recently I made three new etchings, based on my drawings I did when I was there. I spoke with Bill Munns, one of the organizers of CAMDA, and we decided the best way to raise money from these pieces was to open an Etsy shop and sell online. So they are up and selling well and I now have cards made from the etchings that I'm listing too. I'm also asking other artists and printmakers to donate pieces to this etsy shop, I think it'll be an on going project and hopefully raise lots for CAMDA.

Mongolian Horse II, Etching, 7 x 9 cm, Bridget Farmer, 2011

Sincere thanks to Bridget for sharing her beautiful prints and for her fantastic work with CAMDA.  I hope that does print a whole flock of finches one day!

What do you think of Bridget's prints?

Other Project

A Painting for CAMDA

Next Friday, I'll be featuring the work of Bridget Farmer, a very talented printmaker.  After I came across Bridget's work, I discovered that she has an Etsy shop devoted entirely to raising funds for CAMDA (Cambridge Mongolia Development Appeal). 

According to their website, "CAMDA was first formed in 2000 as the result of  widespread poverty and hardship among Mongolia's nomadic herding communities caused by the dzud that year, which is a climate disaster when a drought summer is followed by a winter of extreme severity. Deep snow accompanied by long periods of ultra-low temperatures (-45C) killed millions of herd animals leaving their owners destitute.  News of the first disaster got scant media coverage and John Pirie felt urged to help ease the plight of these herding families. Little was then known about Mongolia, a country still grappling with immense financial deficits, undergoing huge social and economic reforms after 70 years of a Soviet command economy."      

CAMDA develops and maintains grass-root projects.  These projects include a WSPA-funded Mobile Vet Project (2003-2007) to inoculate essential horses against parasitic diseases. A Well-Refurbishment Project to bring water to remote drought-stricken Gobi regions. They also make grants for simple grass cutting equipment to co-operatives in northern provinces where grass is more plentiful. Horse-drawn mowers or diesel tractors fitted with cutter and rake attachments are loaned to local communities helping boost reserve fodder stocks to help see them through the long Mongolian winter.

I was inspired by Bridget's generosity of time and talent in creating a shop for CAMDA and decided to donated a piece of my work to the shop.  This original watercolor painting will be available at the shop once it makes it way to Bridget in Northern Ireland.  It depicts the a Mongolian Landscape with a Ger.  Nearly all Mongolian herders live in white gers (felt-lined tents, yurt in Russian).

What are your favorite examples of art for a cause?  

Aragon Theater, Chicago

Lawrence Red Line Stop, Chicago, watercolor on paper, Jane Sloss, 2010

For the third year, I am making a donation to the One Inspired Evening Art Auction.  The auction is a benefit for Inspiration Corporation an extraordinary organization in Chicago.  Inspiration's stated mission is as follows:

In an atmosphere of dignity and respect, Inspiration Corporation helps people who are affected by homelessness and poverty to improve their lives and increase self-sufficiency through the provision of social services, employment training and placement, and housing.  

Extraordinary!

I feel personally invested in Inspiration Corporation.  I volunteer, serving breakfast weekly at Inspiration's cafe.  Meals at the cafe are served restaurant style and I am delighted by the opportunity to pour guests their coffee, serve their breakfast and clear their plates.  I see the positive impact that the programs of Inspiration Corporation have in the lives of participants and am delighted to give a small amount of my time.

Chicagoans should check out Cafe Too.  Cafe Too is the social enterprise restaurant of Inspiration Corporation.  The restaurant serves as a training program, which has helped hundreds of individuals gain the skills they need to find employment and exit homelessness and poverty.  Not only that, it's delicious!

What are some of the organizations that you think are extraordinary?

St. Gertrude's Tower

This painting will be donated the Edgewater Gralley, a fundraiser for St. Gertrude's Parish.  It will be for sale in their silent auction.  The Gralley is an official venue for Chicago's World Music Festival, which features over 50 musicians at 20 different venues.  

While riding my bike north on Broadway this morning, I noticed the beautiful tower at St. Ita's. This made me think that perhaps this painting should be the first in a series of paintings documenting the towers of Chicago. 

23. Tribune Tower

This painting is to be donated to Inspiration Corporation's "One Inspired Evening" Art Auction. Inspiration Corporation is one of my favorite organizations to support. On their website, they describe their organization as follows: Through its supportive services, employment, and housing programs, Inspiration Corporation assists more than 3,000 individuals and families affected by homelessness and poverty each year - serving as a catalyst for self-reliance.

I have thoroughly enjoyed volunteering each Wednesday morning at Inspiration Cafe. I help provide restaurant style service, taking drink and meal orders at the table and delivering them to the table. I love the simplicity of showing respect by serving a meal in a dignified way. I love the opportunity to gradually come to know the guests in serving them each week. I love the glimpses I get into the lives of those I serve: Each week Roy offers me perhaps the most enthusiastic greetings I have ever received. Steven always has coffee, orange juice with a little ice, extra napkins and a straw. Warren composes and plays songs on the piano. Gayle has two daughters, is often reading spiritual texts and tell jokes he writes himself.

It is with great pleasure that I donate this painting to one of Inspiration Corporation's annual fundraising events. I enjoyed painting this image of the Tribune Tower. Just a few months ago, I painted another image of the Tribune Tower. Comparison of those two paintings makes the dynamic nature of light and its power to transform a composition quite evident.

18. Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower

This painting will be donated to the Zebra Ball and for sale at the event's silent auction on Saturday, February 13, 2010. The Zebra Ball, which takes place in Chicago, benefits the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation. It was launched by Sharon Devereaux, the mother of a childhood friend, whose own mother has been diagnosed with carcinoid cancer. It has been a pleasure to attend the event the last two years and to donate paintings to the silent auction. I marveled as I painted this image at Chicago's extraordinary architecture and the resulting compositions. It is amazing that Chicago is a city where, in a glance, one can see the gleaming white clock tower of the Wrigley Building and the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower.

14. St. Gertrude's

This image is of St. Gertrude's Church in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. The painting will be for sale at the Edgewater Gralley on September 19th. The Gralley takes place along a 4 square block area along GRanville Ave. The name "Gralley" pays homage to Chicago’s alley system and to St. Gertrude’s “alleys," which are actually wide sidewalk and driveway spaces nestled in between it’s gothic buildings and courtyards. The event features two music stages including bands performing at the 2009 World Music Festival of Chicago. Also, a bike parade with State Representative Harry Osterman will officially kick off the GRalley!

3. Administration Building, Columbian Exposition

This is an image of the Administration Building at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. I became interested in the Columbian Exposition after moving to Chicago and reading The Devil in the White City. I made a trip to the Harold Washington library and found many images of the extraordinary campus created for the first Chicago World's Fair. This painting was made as a donation to the Zebra Ball, which raises money for the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation.